Storm Software provides Authentic Leisure with an e-Commerce Website
Background
Authentic Leisure Ltd was set-up in December 2004 to meet a growing demand for children’s outdoor wooden play systems in Ireland.
The Irish economy was still riding the crest of the ‘Celtic tiger’ wave that had swept through the country creating jobs and improving the standard of living for over a decade.
The Project
As a start-up company, the founders were keen to get an e-Commerce Website 'up and running' as soon as possible and as economically as possible.
The Solution
Following a structured needs analysis with Authentic's MD, it was evident that the company's
requirements were for a Website with full-blown e-Commerce functionality, user-friendly design,
security, extensibility, maintainability, Web hosting, and a degree of control of the code.
The site was developed by re-using a suite of object oriented ASP.NET classes, effectively being adapted for the purpose.
The Benefits
Part of James’s early remit was to identify a company that specialised in providing practical ecommerce consultancy, were of excellent value and most likely to give a return on investment.
One of Storm Software’s consultants carried out a structured needs analysis by interviewing the company MD. The analysis was then used to present him with the options available such as the feel, credibility and look of the website, its functionality and integration with the company’s sales process, the technologies available for customer payment options as well as for storage and security.
It was decided that the software development was to be mostly carried out by Storm Software although some of the development was outsourced. A knowledge transfer was also carried out to enable to company to carry out its own maintenance and updating as well as how to maximise its hits from customer searches on the Internet.
The project was complete on time and within budget and evidence of its deliverables can be seen at www.authenticleisure.com.
Conclusion
In this case, Storm provided a complete turnkey solution, completing the project ahead of the anticipated delivery date and at 10% below the quoted cost.
According to the MD: “Throughout the project Storm maintained regular contact, and in just a matter of months from our first meeting, we were getting sales from eCommerce. Incredible.”